Three To Be Inducted Into NCMC Hall Of Fame

Date 2014/1/28 6:34:53 | Topic: News

Three persons will be inducted into the North Central Missouri College Athletic Hall of Fame on Saturday afternoon, February 15 during the Pirates and Lady Pirates basketball games with St. Louis Community College. Don Altes has volunteered at the scorer’s table for the NCMC basketball program for more than 15 years. Altes rarely misses a home game, and many referees have commented that NCMC’s scorer’s table is the “best they have worked with.” A Vietnam veteran, Altes and his family moved to Trenton in 1979. He worked in law enforcement and later became a computer draftsman for Trenton Municipal Utilities. Now retired, he serves as president of the Trenton Park Board. His other volunteer activities have included the NCMC Booster Club, Sunnyview Nursing Home Board, citizens advisory boards for probation/parole and the city airport, Missouri Days Committee, University of Missouri extension council, and the local emergency planning committee. He and his wife Joyce have five children and several grandchildren.

Stephanie Beason is currently in her third season as Head Women’s Basketball Coach at Ancilla College in Donaldson, Indiana. A 2004 graduate of NCMC, she earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Exercise Science from Fairmont State University in West Virginia and a Master’s Degree, also in Exercise Science, from California University of Pennsylvania. During Beason’s first year at NCMC, the Lady Pirates won their region tournament and during her second year the Lady Pirates traveled to the NJCAA National Tournament. She was a First Team All-Region player in 2003 and 2004 and is NCMC’s only First Team NJCAA All-American. Beason started her coaching career as an assistant women’s basketball coach at Highland Community College in Highland, Kansas, and after she gained four years of coaching experience there, she was employed at Ancilla College as Head Coach.

Robert M. Shields was the librarian at North Central Missouri College from 1983 through 2001, and he re-started the college’s baseball program in 1990. Coach Shields’ nomination to the Hall of Fame selection committee was written by one of his former baseball players who said, “Bob didn’t have much of a baseball budget. He and his wife washed ball uniforms, made practice equipment and found places for us to practice. He was a teacher of the fundamentals, believed in his players and gave them an opportunity to succeed. Bob and his family gave a lot to the program and asked for little in return.” Bob also was the Trenton American Legion Blue Jays coach. He is a graduate of Western Michigan University and holds a Master’s Degree in Library Science from Rosary College of Arts and Sciences at Dominican University in Chicago. He and his wife Shirley are now retired and spend winters in the south.

The NCMC Athletic Hall of Fame was implemented in 2005 to recognize the accomplishments of former athletes, coaches, and supporters of college athletics, and names of its members are engraved on a plaque on permanent display in the Ketcham Community Center. The public is encouraged to attend the reception on February 15 to congratulate Don Altes, Stephanie Beason, and Bob Shields.